Overview

The Aigosthena Massacre of 28 December 2035 AE was the mass murder of more than two hundred unarmed citizens of Sagittaron carried out by two Colonial Viper pilots from Fighter Squadron One (VF-1 "The Wolfpack"). All of the victims were civilians and a majority of them were women, children, and the elderly.

At the time of the attack, Aigosthena was a small fishing village of little over 2,000 people. Colonial military intelligence received reliable information that elements of the South Sagittaron Liberation Front (SSLF) had taken refuge in Aigosthena and three other villages located in the southern continent's Jharkand Basin. The Fleet planned a major offensive against those villages and charged VF-1 with burning their houses, killing their livestock, and destroying their stocks of food. The attack was scheduled for 1000 hours, when it was thought that most of the village's inhabitants would have left their homes.

The week before the plan went into motion, Raptors saturated the villages with flyers warning their residents of the Fleet's general intentions and encouraging them to leave. In response, SSLF fighters began fleeing into the surrounding delta under cover of night while at least two hundred of their supporters announced their intention to remain at home. Fleet Intelligence discounted these reports, arguing that denying the enemy its traditional safe havens outweighed any harm that might result.

CPT Eleon "Trio" McCrae and LT Chandra "Wetter" Foulkes lifted off at 0935 hours the morning of 28 December 2035. Upon their arrival at the village, they saw no signs of life and proceeded to drop their ordnance on their assigned targets. Shortly after the first bomb hit, LT Foulkes sighted several individuals fleeing from those homes still standing and reported them on wireless. CPT McCrae ordered his wingman to continue on her planned flight path while he broke off to strafe the runners. Foulkes then began her own strafing pattern while McCrae unloaded the remainder of his bombs. By the time the two Vipers returned to base at 1045 hours, Aigosthena had essentially ceased to exist.

Aftermath

The Aigosthena Massacre did not initially receive much press coverage, though rumors of the strike — most of them exaggerated — spread like wildfire among the population of the southern continent. It wasn't until a reporter from Caprica's Delphi Times-Ledger managed to reach the village with SSLF assistance some three days later that the true magnitude of the assault became clear. For her efforts, Ada Lashley was awarded the Rittman Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2036.

There is no consensus regarding the exact number of casualties. The Colonial Fleet's official body count reported 208 killed and 37 wounded; the SSLF claimed the toll to be more than 500 killed and 300 wounded.

CPT McCrae and LT Foulkes both received dishonorable discharges from the Colonial Fleet. While both were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions, only CPT McCrae was convicted and served just four years of his original life sentence while on house arrest.